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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Lead singer <keyword id="12026638" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nicole-scherzinger" source="Orion">Nicole Scherzinger</keyword> announced the tour's cancellation on Friday in her Instagram Stories.</li><li>Scherzinger said the highly anticipated tour was called off due to the COVID-19 spike across the globe.  </li></ul><p>Hope for a <keyword id="12917123" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="pussycat-dolls" source="Orion">Pussycat Dolls</keyword> reunion was dashed this week after lead singer Nicole Scherzinger announced the group was canceling its highly-anticipated tour on Friday.</p><p>But it seems that fans weren't the only ones who were blindsided.</p><p>In a response to the announcement, some Pussycat Dolls members said Scherzinger's Instagram Stories post was the first time they learned of the cancellation.</p><p>"We want to say how incredibly disappointed we are to learn of an announcement made on Instagram that the Pussycat Dolls <keyword id="12026639" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="reunion-tour" source="Orion">reunion tour</keyword> is canceled," fellow members <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CYdWlGyrbSW/">Carmit Bachar and Jessica Sutta said in a joint statement posted to their respective Instagram accounts on Saturday</a>. "As of now, there has been no official notification of that." </p><p>"Either way, it seems as though it's the end of a chapter to an incredible, life-altering experience full of some awesome memories that we will forever be grateful for," the singers added.</p><p>Scherzinger took to Instagram on Friday to explain the decision, citing rising COVID cases across the globe.</p><div type="image" title="pussycat doll tour nicole scherzinger" height="1370" width="928" msid="88797619" hostid="261"></div><p>"Thank you to everyone who had tickets to see PCD — we are so appreciative of your support and loyalty," Scherzinger said in her Instagram Story. "With the ever-evolving circumstances surrounding the pandemic, I understand the decision that the tour dates had to be canceled."</p><p>Scherzinger also expressed her disappointment, saying she invested a large amount of "time, creative energy," and personal finances into the project. Since leaving the hit girl group, Scherzinger has gone on to have a solo career, and has made several TV appearances as a judge on "The Masked Singer" and, most recently, NBC's "Annie Live!"</p><p>Though the group's members seemed to end the project on good terms with Scherzinger, the band's founder and choreographer Robin Antin shared her own Instagram statement on Saturday, which called out Scherzinger.</p><p>"Myself and all the girls have been waiting on the rescheduled reunion tour dates for a long time, all of us working so hard to make it happen," <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CYdZk9OrdOw/">Antin said in the post</a>. "All of us have made personal &amp; financial sacrifices, but that's what it takes to be a team player in a 'BAND.'"</p><p>"Let's not forget there are five other members of this group who I care for deeply, who deserve to be heard … there are truths to this situation, I just hope one day they see the light," Antin added — referring to members Jessica Sutta, Carmit Bachar, Ashley Roberts, Melody Thornton, and Kimberly Wyatt.</p><p>Group members Roberts, Thornton, and Wyatt have yet to make a statement.</p><p>Representatives for Scherzinger and Antin did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Representatives for Bachar and Sutta said they had no further comment besides the pair's joint statement.</p><p>The latest news follows <a href="https://www.insider.com/nicole-scherzinger-sued-by-pussycat-dolls-founder-over-reunion-tour-2021-9">a complaint Antin filed against Scherzinger in Los Angeles Superior Court in September</a>, after the Pussycat Dolls front woman requested "complete creative control and be afforded final decision-making authority," and initially refused to participate in the reunion tour until new terms were met, among other complaints.</p><p>Some fans have already purchased tickets for the tour, but they were notified of the cancellations via email by Live Nation.</p><p>Representatives for Live Nation, the tour's promoter, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.</p>

The Pussycat Dolls say they found out their reunion tour was scrapped after Nicole Scherzinger's cancellation announcement

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin sued <keyword id="12026638" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nicole-scherzinger" source="Orion">Nicole Scherzinger</keyword> in Los Angeles Superior Court. </li><li>Scherzinger allegedly refused to participate in the <keyword id="12026639" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="reunion-tour" source="Orion">reunion tour</keyword> unless new terms were met. </li><li>She asked for "complete creative control" and a majority share in the group's business ventures, the complaint alleged. </li></ul><p>The Pussycat Dolls founder sued Nicole Scherzinger for allegedly refusing to participate in the upcoming reunion tour. </p><p>Robin Antin, the choreographer who founded the popular girl group, filed a complaint against Scherzinger on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court. In the complaint viewed by Insider, Antin alleged that Scherzinger requested "complete creative control and be afforded final decision-making authority."</p><p>The complaint also alleged that Scherzinger asked for a larger share in the group's business ventures going forward. The documents claim that in 2019, it was agreed that Scherzinger would receive 49% of PCD Worldwide's shares and profits from the tour and business venture. </p><p>"ANTIN and PCD only agreed to transfer the shares to SCHERZINGER based upon SCHERZINGER's promise to perform as part of the reunion tour," the complaint read. </p><p>The complaint said Scherzinger promoted the reunion tour, but the project got sidetracked after the Covid-19 pandemic struck. The tour was rescheduled for May 2021 to June 2021 but was pushed back again as the pandemic continued worldwide. Currently, the Pussycat Dolls reunion tour dates are <a href="https://www.livenation.co.uk/artist-pussycat-dolls-21825" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listed as "to be confirmed." </a></p><div type="image" title="Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin wearing a cowboy hate and sparkling top." height="2526" width="3368" msid="85928927" hostid="261"></div><p>"Despite this affirmation of her participation, SCHERZINGER now refuses to participate in the reunion tour. In 2021, SCHERZINGER demanded to renegotiate the terms of the MOU," the complaint alleged. </p><p>The complaint alleged that Scherzinger asked her 49% share be upped to 75%. </p><p>Antin alleged in the complaint that "tour dates were planned but are unable to be confirmed because of Scherzinger's extortion." The <keyword id="11896019" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="entertainment" source="Orion">entertainment</keyword> company Live Nation has "demanded" the return of their $600,000 investment into the project. </p><p>"SCHERZINGER, by her actions described herein, has breached the MOU between the parties, and frustrated the purpose of a binding contract in bad faith. SCHERZINGER's conduct effectively extorts Plaintiffs for a significantly greater benefit at the direct expense of the other parties to the MOU and all other third parties who relied on SCHERZINGER's full performance," the complaint read. </p><div type="image" title="Nicole Scherzinger" height="2216" width="2956" msid="85928930" hostid="261"></div><p>A representative for Scherzinger did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.</p><p>People reported that Antin the Pussycat Dolls founded the Pussycat Dolls as a burlesque show in 1995. It later transformed into a mainstream girl group by the early 2000s. The group consisted of Scherzinger, Melody Thornton, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/pussycat-dolls-singer-jessica-sutta-pregnant-with-first-child-9886732" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jessica Sutta</a>, Ashley Roberts, Carmit Bacher, and Kimberly Wyatt. </p><p>The group released hit songs like "Don't Cha" and "Buttons" before disbanding in 2010, <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/pussycat-dolls-members-past-and-present-from-nicole-scherzinger-to-carmit-bachar-a4299396.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Evening Standard </a>reported. Scherzinger went on to have a solo career and participate in TV appearances like<a href="https://www.insider.com/facts-didnt-know-about-masked-singer-judges" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> The Masked Singer</a>. </p>

Nicole Scherzinger sued by Pussycat Dolls founder over reunion tour

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Nick Cannon said that he had dated his "Masked Singer" costar, Nicole Scherzinger.</li><li>He told Revolt's "The Jason Lee Show" that he had "chased" the singer for years.</li></ul><p>Nick Cannon said that his "<a href="https://www.insider.com/every-celebrity-reveal-on-the-masked-singer">Masked Singer</a>" costar, Nicole Scherzinger, was the only woman he had romantically "chased" in his life.</p><p>Back in 2014, the rapper told <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr_8a_Cj4II">Power 106's "Big Boy's Neighborhood" YouTube channel</a> that Scherzinger was one of many famous people that he had slept with. The pair now work on "The Masked Singer," where <a href="https://www.insider.com/nicole-scherzinger-announces-pussycat-dolls-reunion-tour-is-cancelled-2022-1">the Pussycat Dolls singer</a> is on the judging panel, while Cannon is the host.</p><p>On a new episode of "The Jason Lee Show" where he was playing a game of "Smash or Pass," Cannon said that he used to be "so in love" with Scherzinger.</p><p>After Scherzinger's picture came up, the "Wild 'n Out" host said: "Everybody knows that's my ex. I wouldn't do it now. I was so in love with Nicole. That's probably the only woman I've ever chased. I chased her. I gave her Bible verses. I gave her a custom Bible because she's very spiritual and super into Christianity."</p><p>"She was like, 'I'm not messing with you. You toxic.' I chased her for years. The Bible is what got me in," Cannon added.</p><p>Cannon never clarified in the interview when the pair dated, and Scherzinger has never spoken about the relationship.</p><p>When asked about what he liked about the former Pussycat Doll, Cannon said: "First of all, super talented. The world hasn't seen how talented. Vocally, she's incredible, but her acting, her humor, her impressions, and then she's just a good person. Like, one of them people that don't say bad about nobody. You see her — she cries every episode of 'Masked Singer.'"</p><p>Elsewhere in the interview, Cannon was asked about his growing family and <a href="https://www.insider.com/nick-cannon-healthier-stay-separated-mariah-carey-2023-5">his relationship with his former wife Mariah Carey</a>, and he <a href="https://www.insider.com/nick-cannon-content-12-children-more-kids-2023-5">also appeared to shut down rumors</a> about having a 13th child.</p>

Nick Cannon says 'Masked Singer' costar Nicole Scherzinger is the only woman he's ever 'chased': 'I gave her a custom Bible'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Nicole Scherzinger has been named the "godmother" of P&amp;O Cruises' newest ship.</li><li>The Pussycat Doll is the latest in a long line of celebrity godmothers. </li></ul><p>Nicole Scherzinger has been <a href="https://www.pocruises.com/arvia-godmother" target="_blank" rel="noopener">named</a> the godmother of P&amp;O Cruises' newest ship, Arvia. </p><p>The singer, best known for fronting the Pussycat Dolls, is the latest in a long line of celebrity godmothers. Some of the most famous figures to take the role include <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oprah-winfrey-success-secret-2019-3">Oprah Winfrey</a>, <a href="https://www.insider.com/queen-elizabeth-ii-death-obituary-2022-9">Queen Elizabeth</a>, and Katy Perry.</p><p>Scherzinger will attend the ship's naming ceremony in the Caribbean on March 16 and perform at the event.</p><p>P&amp;O Cruises also <a href="https://www.pocruises.com/arvia-godmother" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the singer was joining them as "part of a special partnership" to help create the music and dance entertainment performed on board its ships. </p><p>The pop star and "The X Factor" judge said in a statement reported by <a href="https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tour-operators/nicole-scherzinger-named-godmother-of-po-cruises-arvia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">several outlets</a>: "I have always felt as though I am honorary Brit and to be asked to name Arvia in Barbados really is the icing on the cake and I cannot wait to perform my godmother duties in the most beautiful of Caribbean locations."</p><p>Here's where a cruise ship's godmother is and what the role includes.  </p><h2>What is a ship godmother?</h2><p>A cruise ship godmother is a long-standing tradition. A largely honorific title, the godmother is supposed to bring a vessel good luck and protection. </p><p>In naval tradition, the role is taken by a civilian woman but now celebrities or royal family members are the most common kind of godmother. Some of the more famous godmothers or fathers include Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey, and Pitbull, according <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/cruises/famous-cruise-ship-godmothers-including-22961801" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to The Mirror</a>.</p><p>Several cruise companies, including <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-review-new-11-billion-norwegian-prima-cruise-ship-2022-10">Norwegian</a>, have a mixture of ship godmothers and godfathers.</p><p>Naming a cruise ship godmother is also a marketing initiative, celebrities sponsoring ships brings more publicity and build excitement for the launch of a new ship. </p><h2>What does the role involve?</h2><p>The role is mainly centered around a ship's naming ceremony. Godmothers must attend the event and officially bless and name the vessel. </p><p>Traditionally the godmothers would also crack a bottle of champagne against the ship's bow to bring it luck.</p><p>As ships got bigger, this tradition was tweaked slightly. These days the job involves pressing a button to trigger a bottle to swing down and smash on the ship.</p>

Cruise ships have named celebrity 'godmothers' including Oprah Winfrey, Queen Elizabeth, and Nicole Scherzinger. Here's what the role involves.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A musical in England was shuttered when rowdy audience members refused to stop singing loudly.</li><li>"The Bodyguard" was stopped 10 minutes before it finished when two people were removed from the venue.</li></ul><p>A theater performance of the musical "The Bodyguard" was halted when audience members singing loudly over the show's star had to be thrown out. </p><p>The musical "The Bodyguard," which features hit songs by Whitney Houston, had to be stopped 10 minutes before it finished when two women were removed from the Palace Theatre, one of the main theaters in Manchester, northwest England, <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/police-called-to-disturbance-at-manchester-palace-theatre-during-the-bodyguard-musical-after-audience-tried-to-sing-over-cast-12852504?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sky News reports.</a></p><p>According to Sky News, Six police officers attended the scene. </p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/KarlBradley_1/status/1644464609586192384" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Videos on social media</a> show the audience members singing raucously over the iconic song "I Will Always Love You." </p><p>The former Pussycat Dolls star, Actor Melody Thornton, who plays the lead role in "The Bodyguard," apologized to fans after the incident in an <a href="https://www.instagram.com/melodythornton/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram post</a> and said the disruptive element was not "respectful." </p><p>Thornton had to stop singing the big final number twice due to the rowdy audience members shouting and singing, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/bodyguard-manchester-audience-singing-video-b2316712.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports said.</a></p> <p>Later footage shows people chanting "out, out, out" and then loudly applauding when the disruptive audience members are escorted out of the theatre.</p><p>One person wrote <a href="https://twitter.com/tashalou96/status/1644455343248883716?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1644455343248883716%7Ctwgr%5E9a48cf45baf80a1d9f09d65f5c46236ab274c26e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.insider.com%2Fpost%2Fpreview%3Fpost_id%3D6432ab4b20014457182fd055mode%3Ddesktop" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on Twitter</a>, "Went to The Palace Theatre in Manchester to watch "The Bodyguard" and a bunch of entitled pricks starting singing over the lead during the final song. A riot broke out, the show was canceled, and the police were called."</p><p>The incident has sparked debates about the conduct of audiences at musicals, with a number of people flooding to social media to say that singing over professional performers is disrespectful. </p><p>Last week, a survey by the UK's Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications, and Theatre Union revealed that 90%  of its members had experienced anti-social behavior, often from drunken theater-goers. </p><p>Mass brawls, violent assaults, and people urinating in fire exits were some examples of unacceptable behavior that front-of-house theater staff said they had experienced.</p><p>70% believed the issue has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/mar/28/uk-theatre-staff-audience-behaviour-abuse-drunken-theatregoers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Guardian.</a></p><p>Performer and TikToker Catherine Cornwall made a video expressing her frustration at rowdy audience members.</p><p>Cornwall <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@cathcorn/video/7219644140798217478" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>: "Do you have any idea how difficult it is to try and stay in tune and stay in time when you are belting, and there are 50 drunk people singing the words wrong and out of tune?"</p>

Video shows moment 'entitled' women were thrown out of a theater for raucous singing during 'The Bodyguard's' iconic number

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Ashton Kutcher was criticized for writing a letter of support for Danny Masterson after Masterson was convicted of rape. </li><li>Kutcher called Masterson an "excellent role model" in a letter to the sentencing judge. </li></ul><p>Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson played friends on Fox's hit <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/that-70s-show-cast-real-ages-versus-characters-2023-8">late '90s sitcom "That '70s Show."</a></p><p>But the actors appear to have forged an even closer bond in real life when the cameras weren't rolling.</p><p>Earlier this year, Masterson was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/actor-danny-masterson-verdict-guilty-rape-retrial-2023-5">convicted of raping two women</a>, but Kutcher and his wife Mila Kunis have seemingly stood by their old costar. The pair came under fire after it was revealed they'd written <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/ashton-kutcher-mila-kunis-support-letters-danny-masterson-rape-2023-9">letters of support</a> for Masterson in advance of his sentencing. Here's a timeline of Kutcher and Masterson's 25-year friendship.</p><h2>1998: Kutcher and Masterson met and bonded over an inappropriate bet involving Kutcher's now-wife Mila Kunis</h2><p>Masterson and Kutcher met in 1998 while filming the pilot episode of the hit Fox sitcom "That '70s Show" with Kutcher's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/mila-kunis-ashton-kutcher-relationship-history-2018-8#february-3-2023-kunis-called-her-husband-out-for-being-awkward-on-the-red-carpet-with-reese-witherspoon-25">now-wife Mila Kunis</a>. Masterson was 22, Kutcher was 19, and Kunis was 14.</p><p>In the wake of the couple sending <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/ashton-kutcher-mila-kunis-support-letters-danny-masterson-rape-2023-9">individual letters of support for Masterson</a> prior to his rape sentence, a clip from "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" resurfaced online in which Kunis and Kutcher —who played love interests on-screen — told O'Donnell that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/danny-masterson-ashton-kutcher-bet-kissing-underage-mila-kunis-interview-2023-9">Masterson dared Kutcher</a> to French kiss Kunis during their first onscreen kiss, and that he'd give him $10 to do it. </p><p>The costars disagreed about whether Kutcher followed through with the bet. "I didn't let him, I think he tried," Kunis said.</p><p>Kutcher admitted to O'Donnell that even scripted kisses between the characters were "slightly illegal" at the time, presumably considering Kunis's age.</p> <h2>2002-2003: Masterson and Kutcher could often be found partying together</h2><div type="image" title="Danny Masterson, Ashton Kutcher, and Joe Francis." height="2238" width="3000" msid="103590281" hostid="261" sizebytes="445116"></div><p>In 2002, they traveled to Costa Rica together to attend the opening of a new casino and resort (replete with performances from the Pussycat Dolls and Carmen Electra). </p><p>Masterson and Kutcher were often each other's plus-ones to movie premieres when they were unattached, and Masterson supported Kutcher's burgeoning film career by attending the premiere of his 2002 film "Just Married."</p><p>The pair competed in the 2003 NBA All-Star game together, and as recently as 2016, they hung out together at the Wynn Casino with Masterson's brother Jordan and some of their "The Ranch" castmates. </p><h2>2003: Masterson and Kutcher invested in a now-defunct restaurant together</h2><div type="image" title="Ashton Kutcher talking to Puff Daddy and Danny Masterson at Dolce" height="2006" width="3000" msid="103590282" hostid="261" sizebytes="384498"></div><p>In 2003, both Masterson and Kutcher invested in the Italian eatery Dolce, alongside their "That '70s Show" costar Wilmer Valderrama.</p><p>The restaurant, developed by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/big-brother-winners-where-are-they-now-complete-list">"Big Brother" winner Mike "Boogie" Malin, </a>was a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jun-26-wk-out26-story.html">West Hollywood hotspot</a> when it first opened, but closed in 2009.</p><h2>2003 and 2004: Kutcher supported his costars, including Masterson, at a Church of Scientology holiday event</h2><div type="image" title="Kutcher and Masterson at Scientology's Celebrity Centre on December 4, 2004 in Hollywood, California." height="1982" width="3000" msid="103590283" hostid="261" sizebytes="316688"></div><p>Both Masterson and his "That '70s Show" costar Laura Prepon were members of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/scientology-celebrity-2017-7">Church of Scientology</a> in the early 2000s.</p><p>Kutcher's personal ties to the organization are unclear. Although he has never publicly identified as a Scientologist, there is photographic evidence of the "Dude, Where's My Car?" star performing on stage at the Church's annual "Christmas Stories" event to benefit the Hollywood Police Activities League in 2003 and 2004.</p><p>Kunis, Prepon, and Valderrama also attended the event for two consecutive years.</p><p>Prepon revealed that she was no longer a Scientologist in a 2021 interview with <a target="_blank" href="https://people.com/tv/laura-prepon-on-motherhood-and-leaving-scientology/">People</a>. Masterson is believed to be still involved in the Church; during his rape trial, his victims <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/danny-mastersons-trial-in-one-of-biggest-in-scientology-history-2022-10">accused Scientology of trying to silence them</a>, an accusation the Church <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/danny-mastersons-victims-portray-predator-powerful-impact-statements-rcna104077">has denied</a>.   </p><h2>2005: Masterson appeared on Kutcher's hit prank show 'Punk'd.'</h2><div type="image" title="Danny Masterson on &quot;Punk'd.&quot;" height="1080" width="1440" msid="103590284" hostid="261" sizebytes="37834"></div><p>Kutcher co-created and hosted MTV's hit show <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/ashton-kutcher-punkd-tv-show-pranks-interview-rachel-lindsay-2022-7">"Punk'd" from 2003 to 2007.</a></p><p>On a season six episode of the show, Kutcher got Masterson involved in a tricky situation involving stereo equipment falling from a moving truck.</p><p>Kutcher planted actors to be the truck driver and strangers on the street who steal the speakers. He was operating under the assumption that Masterson would be too good a person to drive away from the fallen equipment or steal it. Instead, Kutcher thought his friend might stick around to clean up and discourage the strangers from stealing.</p><p>While introducing the scenario, Kutcher called Masterson a "very moral man" and predicted that he wasn't going to steal the equipment because he was "not gonna be the one to pull the crooked move, he's a straight and narrow guy."</p><p>Masterson did, in fact, discourage Kutcher's plants from stealing boxes of speakers and tried to break up a fight on the scene when the fake truck driver came back angry about his stolen goods.</p><h2>2006: 'That '70s Show' aired its series finale</h2><div type="image" title="that 70s show cast" height="1851" width="3000" msid="103590285" hostid="261" sizebytes="230760"></div><p>The series finale of "That '70s Show" aired on Fox on May 18, 2006.</p><p>"I've actually never cried so much in my life," Masterson told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IPM_CMRQko&amp;ab_channel=AccessHollywood">Access Hollywood</a> at the wrap party, as he recalled filming the episode.</p><h2>2016: A decade after 'That '70s Show' ended, Masterson and Kutcher reunited on Netflix's 'The Ranch'</h2><div type="image" title="ashton kutcher netflix ranch" height="962" width="1440" msid="103590286" hostid="261" sizebytes="251156"></div><p>Kutcher and Masterson played brothers Colt Bennett and Jameson "Rooster" Bennett, respectively, on Netflix's sitcom "The Ranch" from 2016 to 2017.</p><p>In a joint interview promoting the show in 2016, Kutcher told<a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqZrH6PLGWI&amp;ab_channel=OnDemandEntertainment"> On Demand Entertainment</a> that they'd been looking for a project to work on together since "That '70s Show" wrapped and spent a year developing their characters.</p><p>While promoting the show on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySNQpa3EzLk&amp;ab_channel=TheLateLateShowwithJamesCorden">"The Late Late Show with James Corden"</a> that same year, Masterson jokingly told Corden that he had naked pictures of Kutcher from the old days partying together while they worked on "That '70s Show." </p><h2>2017: Masterson was written off of 'The Ranch' amid sexual assault allegations against him</h2><div type="image" title="Danny Masterson" height="2002" width="3000" msid="103590288" hostid="261" sizebytes="160634"></div><p>After accusations of rape emerged against Masterson in 2017, his character Rooster was written off of "The Ranch" in an episode during the second half of season three.</p><p>"As a result of ongoing discussions, Netflix and the producers have written Danny Masterson out of 'The Ranch,'" <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/netflix-fires-the-ranch-star-danny-masterson-after-accusations-of-sexual-assault-2017-12">Netflix said in a statement to Insider</a> at the time. "Yesterday [Monday] was his last day on the show, and production will resume in early 2018 without him."</p><p>In his own statement at the time, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/danny-masterson-netflix-ousted_n_5a2698a0e4b086e4e50461b1?k3f=">Masterson told HuffPost</a> he was "disappointed" with the streamer's decision.</p><p>"I have never been charged with a crime, let alone convicted of one," his statement continued.</p><p>Kutcher didn't speak on the allegations at the time.</p><p>On Materson's final episode of "The Ranch," released on June 15, 2018, Rooster flees town after he's threatened by his girlfriend's ex at gunpoint.</p><h2>January 2023: Kutcher speaks out about Masterson's charges for the first time</h2><div type="image" title="Ashton Kutcher." height="683" width="1024" msid="103590289" hostid="261" sizebytes="54296"></div><p>Kutcher spoke about the charges against Masterson for the first time in an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a42698761/ashton-kutcher-your-place-or-mine-interview-2023/">Esquire interview</a> published in January.</p><p>At the time, Kutcher said he wanted his friend and mentor, who had kept him away from drugs during his early years of fame, "to be found innocent of the charges brought against him."</p><p>"I'm not the judge. I'm not the jury. I'm not the DA. I'm not the victim. And I'm not the accused. And so, in that case, I don't have a space to comment," he continued.</p><p>Kutcher said he felt bad that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/kn64QwEuce/?hl=en">Masterson's 9-year-old daughter, Fianna Francis Masterson</a>, whom he shares with wife Bijou Phillips, was going to have to read about her dad's case online eventually.</p><p>Kutcher also revealed that he still talked to Masterson and his brother.</p><p>He also expressed support for Masterson's accusers. "I wholesale feel for anybody who feels like they were violated in any way," he said.</p><h2>September 8, 2023: Kutcher and his wife Mila Kunis write letters of support for Masterson prior to his rape sentencing. </h2><div type="image" title="Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis at the 2022 Oscars." height="2950" width="2000" msid="103590290" hostid="261" sizebytes="367496"></div><p>Masterson was convicted of raping two women in May 2023 and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/danny-masterson-sentenced-30-years-prison-that-70s-show-2023-9">sentenced to 30 years in prison</a> on Thursday, September 7.</p><p>On September 8, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.legalaffairsandtrials.com/p/ashton-kutcher-and-mila-kunis-wrote?utm_source=post-email-title&amp;publication_id=1306850&amp;post_id=136852853&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=yzhw0&amp;utm_medium=email">legal affairs journalist Meghann Cuniff</a> was the first to publish individual letters of support that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/ashton-kutcher-mila-kunis-support-letters-danny-masterson-rape-2023-9">Kutcher and Kunis</a>, who married in 2015, wrote Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo in support of Masterson's character.</p><p>In his letter, Kutcher wrote of Masterson: "We have spent countless hours together with our kids and he is among few people that I would trust to be alone with my son and daughter."</p><p>He also called his former co-star a role model and credited Masterson with keeping him away from drugs.</p><p>In the letter, Kutcher said he knew Masterson had been found guilty of two counts of rape and that "the victims have a great desire for justice," but asked the judge to consider his daughter and character in sentencing.</p><h2>September 9, 2023: Kutcher and Kunis issue a public apology for their letters supporting Masterson</h2> <p>After a public outcry, Kutcher and Kunis posted <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw-6kG2PusA/">a video to Instagram </a>apologizing to Masterson's victims and explaining their actions one day after their letters were published online.</p><p>In the video, Kutcher explained that Masterson's family had reached out to them and asked for character letters describing the man they had known for 25 years.</p><p>"They were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or retraumatize them in any way. We would never want to do that and we're sorry if that has taken place," <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/ashton-kutcher-mila-kunis-danny-masterson-letters-apology-sentencing-conviction-2023-9">Kutcher said of the letters</a> in the video.</p>

A complete timeline of Ashton Kutcher's friendship with 'That '70s Show' costar and convicted rapist Danny Masterson      

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The 76-year-old actor <keyword id="12324452" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="henry-winkler" source="Orion">Henry Winkler</keyword>'s <keyword id="11894125" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tiktok" source="Orion">TikTok</keyword> dances have gone <keyword id="11896837" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="viral" source="Orion">viral</keyword>, delighting fans.</li><li>He said he never expected this response and joined the app at his granddaughter's insistence.</li></ul><p>Henry Winkler is experiencing unexpected TikTok fame.</p><p>The 76-year-old actor — who is best known for his role as Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli on the TV show "Happy Days" from 1974 to 1984 — is reaching a new audience since joining the app in November 2020. In total, his six videos have racked up 33 million views, and he has over 1.2 million followers.</p><p>His two most recent videos, posted in the first week of this year, have been particularly warmly received. The <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@henry.winkler/video/7048349844745751855?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1&amp;lang=en">first</a> shows him dancing to Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me" in front of a Christmas tree, while the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@henry.winkler/video/7048351846309825838?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1&amp;lang=en">second</a> features him dancing with three of his grandchildren to "When I Grow Up" by The Pussycat Dolls. </p> <p>The videos have been viewed 9.7 million and 2.1 million times, respectively, with some of the top comments referencing Winkler's role on "Happy Days."</p><p>"Imagine being Henry's grandkids and going to sleepovers and telling other kids parents that's their grandpa is the fonz," one comment with 1,116 likes says. </p><p>His presence on the app has captured the attention of mainstream media outlets, too, with publications including the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10365255/Henry-Winkler-76-shows-dance-moves-adorable-TikTok-challenge-grandchildren.html">Daily Mail</a>, <a href="https://people.com/parents/henry-winkler-grandchildren-dance-moves-on-tiktok/">People</a>, and <a href="https://hollywoodlife.com/2022/01/03/henry-winkler-tiktok-grandkids-video/">Hollywood Life</a> covering his latest video.</p><p>Despite becoming something of a TikTok star, Winkler told Insider he had spent no time scrolling through the app and had no plans to do so anytime soon. He also has no interest in Instagram or Facebook, he said, but he's "very active on" Twitter, where <a href="https://twitter.com/hwinkler4real">he has 877,000 followers</a>.</p><p>Winkler said joining TikTok was a "very easy decision" but he didn't expect to go viral, telling Insider he was "completely surprised" by the response.</p><p>"My 11-year-old granddaughter, who is now 12, said, 'Papa, we <em>have</em> to make a TikTok for you.' I said, 'You pick the music,' and away we went dancing into the night. I had no idea what the results would be," he said.</p><p>Winkler added that the response to his videos had been overwhelmingly positive, saying fans appeared "delighted" by his dances, especially his latest post with his grandchildren, which he said "took off like a rocket."</p><p>Holiday-themed TikTok videos have now become a tradition in the Winkler family. The actor said his granddaughters picked the music and they practiced the steps together before filming the result.</p> <p>"I never thought that my having so much fun with my grandchildren would generate this much interest," he said. "The excitement in the room, picking music that is not X-rated, is a joy unto itself."</p><p>Despite enjoying his time on TikTok, the celebrated actor — who has a storied Hollywood career with appearances in many films and TV shows, including his recent role on HBO's hit series "Barry" — said he had no plans to pivot to a career as an influencer.</p><p>"It's hard enough to pivot into a spin while making the dance," he said.</p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/culture"><strong>For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.</strong></a></p>

Henry Winkler is shocked his dances keep going viral on TikTok, saying he joined only because his granddaughter insisted

<p class="drop-cap">As the dancers make their way to rehearsal, air-raid sirens blare throughout Kharkiv. When the city first came under siege, the alarms would have sent them rushing to the nearest underground shelter, where they'd wait out the shelling. Now, more than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-says-war-will-last-until-2025-wanted-to-beat-ukraine-in-days-2023-9">500 day</a>s later, the dancers have learned to ignore the sirens. The wails have become part of their soundtrack as they prepare for showtime in Ukraine's easternmost major city, only 15 miles from the Russian border.</p><p>By mid-afternoon, nine women have gathered around the dance pole at Flash Dancers, the only women-owned exotic dance club in Kharkiv. Prostitution is illegal in Ukraine, putting strip clubs in a legal gray area. But the law was seldom enforced even before the war — the country boasted one of the most thriving sex-tourism scenes in Eastern Europe, with an estimated <a href="https://bmcinthealthhumrights.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12914-019-0201-y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">80,000 sex workers</a> in 2016. Today, with Kharkiv's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/world/europe/ukraine-war-kyiv-police.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">police preoccupied</a> with defending the city from Russian saboteurs and helping with the fallout of missile strikes, Ukrainians seem to accept that a modicum of vice might need to be tolerated, or even embraced, amid the grinding <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-shouldnt-follow-us-military-doctrine-warfare-better-trainer-russia-2023-9">austerity of war</a>. "Our goal is to be a switch from what is happening," says Valeriya Zavadskaya, the club's 24-year-old co-owner.</p><p>Under the club's dim red lighting, Valeriya leads the dancers through a rehearsal as Christina Aguilera's "Express" blares over the PA:</p><p><em>E-X-P-R-E-S-S<br /></em><em>Love, sex<br /></em><em>Ladies, no regrets</em></p><p>"One, two, go backwards," Valeriya orders. "Take two steps and then do <em>bam! bam! bam!</em>" With her arms stretched behind her head, she demonstrates the move, lifting herself upside down onto the pole, splitting her legs, spinning in midair, and landing on beat.</p><div type="image" title="Women dancing under red light at nightclub." height="842" width="2442" msid="104106344" hostid="261"></div><p>One dancer looks stupefied. She tries the move but barely gets airborne before stumbling. "I won't do that," she says.</p><p>"Yes, you will!" says Valeriya, demonstrating again. Over the next two hours, with indefatigable drill-sergeant precision, she works the dancers through each pop and pirouette of the routine, as Aguilera's power ballad plays on a seemingly endless loop:</p><p><em>All ladies confident, flaunt it<br /></em><em>Boys throw it up if you want it<br /></em><em>Can you feel me? Can it feel it? It's Burlesque</em></p><p>Valeriya shouts the last line as she navigates the dancers through the song, changing "burlesque" to "Flash Dance." That's the name Valeriya's mother, a former professional Soviet dancer, gave the club when she opened it a decade ago. ("Express," a song from the movie "Burlesque," in which Cher plays a nightclub owner and mother figure to Aguilera's character, is a wink to their mother-daughter proprietorship.)<br style="font-weight: 400;" /><br /></p><div type="image" title="Women training under a blue light." height="754" width="2292" msid="104106347" hostid="261"></div><p>The signs of war are everywhere. The windows on the three floors above the club remain boarded up after an explosion last year in the center of Kharkiv shattered every window on the block. Because Flash Dancers is in the basement, it doubles as an air-raid shelter, where staff members and tenants living above the club can wait out rocket strikes in the red-leather booths surrounding the dance pole. The club has lost three employees to the war, two of them a married couple who met there. More than a million residents have fled Kharkiv, and few who remain can afford to spend an evening at Flash Dancers, where a drink costs three times what it did before the war. There are never more than 20 guests. On some nights, no one shows up.</p><p>Yet despite a strict 11 p.m. curfew mandated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the club remains open seven nights a week. At this point it's not a living, it's a lifeline — part of a nationwide, defiant attempt at normality in the midst of war. As Valeriya leads the dancers to the dressing room to change into the night's costumes, she talks about why she fell in love with the world of dance her mother introduced her to. It also sums up what the club strives to offer beleaguered patrons and employees alike.</p><p>"It's something you can't say with words," she says, "but can tell with your body."</p><p class="drop-cap">A few hours before rehearsal, I meet with Valeriya's mother, Valeriia Kseniya, in her office at her day job, as director of a small hotel a short drive from the club. "For most of us in Ukraine today, it's difficult to earn a living in just one job," she says. We sit on the couch as she displays pictures from her life in show business — dancing with a chimpanzee in her days with a Chinese circus group, sauntering at a cabaret in South Korea. Every few minutes we can hear the lull of a train carrying soldiers and civilians passing through the railway station next door.</p><p>Growing up in Kharkiv under Soviet rule, Kseniya found herself "irritated by reality." She worked as a gymnast for the Komsomol, the communist youth league, and tried to focus on the joy of performance and ignoring the Communist Party. By the time the Iron Curtain fell and Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, she was 23. For much of the next two decades she was frequently on the road: dancing in clubs in Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia, modeling lingerie in Italy, touring with ballet troupes in Asia.</p><div type="image" title="Image of same woman young and old." height="1475" width="1967" msid="104106349" hostid="261"></div><p>By 2014, with a teenager and a toddler in tow (she also had a grown son, who works in Ukraine's energy sector and was then 23), Kseniya decided to settle in Kharkiv. That spring, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and orchestrated a rebellion of its Donbas region, plunging Ukraine into a recession. Inflation approached 30%, while unemployment climbed to nearly 11%. But for Kseniya, the timing was fortuitous. A strip club in the center of the city was going out of business. Here was her chance, she thought, to bring the world of dance home. </p><p>With visions of building a modern-day Moulin Rouge, the legendary 19th-century Parisian cabaret, Kseniya hired a handful of attractive women who knew how to dance, and then began choreographing elaborate, acrobatic numbers set to American and Europop songs. The police were suspicious: In the club's first year, they showed up multiple times to question her and the dancers about whether Flash Dancers was a front for a prostitution ring. Patrons expecting strip-club fare, meanwhile, were flummoxed by the unusual customer experience.</p><p>"Everyone initially thought it was a club with happy endings," says Kseniya, now 55. The choreography looks more like that of a modern dance company than the Hustler Club, the dancers do not get topless, and sex with customers is strictly forbidden. "Our position is that girls are not meat," Kseniya says. "Girls are about aesthetics, about femininity, about beauty." </p><p>Eventually, the club built a reputation for its performances — several pre-2022 Google reviews appear to be from women who took their husbands to the show ("wonderful, soulful atmosphere!" one wrote) — and the business grew. In 2020, needing a business partner she could trust, Kseniya brought on Valeriya as co-owner. Then early in her studies at the National University of Kharkiv, Valeriya was majoring in dance and law. ("Dance is for your soul," she explains. "Law is forever.") She took on an after-hours leadership role at the club, choreographing new numbers, helping manage the books, and running the club's Instagram and TikTok feeds. </p><div type="image" title="Woman wearing a big red bow with red background." height="3944" width="5259" msid="104106353" hostid="261"></div><p>Then came Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kharkiv immediately became a brutal battleground, battered by relentless shelling and cluster bombs. On the day of the invasion — February 24, 2022 — Kseniya and Valeriya reached all 20 dancers. Many were already fleeing. Most would not return.</p><p>With the city under siege, Kseniya continued working at the hotel to help lodge civilians who were waiting in huge numbers to leave the train station. In the first two weeks, some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/26/we-decided-to-be-useful-ukraine-the-kharkiv-citizens-who-stayed-behind" target="_blank" rel="noopener">600,000 people</a>, more than a third of the city, left by rail alone. On March 8, after Russian fighter jets bombed several nearby homes, Kseniya joined the exodus. She and her daughters — accompanied by Valeriya's lapdogs, Sara and Lady — journeyed 15 hours by train to Drohobych, near the Polish border. There, they waited to see whether they would one day have a home to return to.</p><p class="drop-cap">In May 2022, after nearly three months of fighting, Ukrainian troops pushed Russian forces away from Kharkiv. Valeriya and her family returned to find parts of their city unrecognizable, and the rubble-strewn streets quiet. Rocket strikes and shelling had damaged or destroyed apartment complexes, government buildings, churches, an opera house, a concert hall, and an economic building at the university where Valeriya was finishing her degree. The stone walls of the Flash Dancers facade were pockmarked with shrapnel. <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/06/ukraine-hundreds-killed-in-relentless-russian-shelling-of-kharkiv-new-investigation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">More than 600 civilians</a> were thought to have been killed in the Kharkiv region.</p><p>Nearly <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/development-impact-war-ukraine-initial-projections-enuk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">half of all businesses</a> in Ukraine shut down, and 90% of Ukrainians were facing poverty. But Kseniya refused to let Flash Dancers sit empty. She decided to reopen it with the cash she had left from the club's earlier success. And once again, she found herself grimly fortunate. Though she and Valeriya had to replace almost all of the club's staff, many women who had been working at local restaurants and strip clubs were now looking for jobs. "Everything was closed, and people began to come to us," Valeriya said. Few of them, however, had ever danced.</p><p>Now, in the afternoon before the club opens, Valeriya cleans the toilet, calls the plumber to fix a leak, and makes sure the bar is stocked and the prices are set for the evening. With inflation, liquor costs up to three times what it did before Russia's full-scale invasion. "We have a huge markup on everything," says Valeriya.<br style="font-weight: 400;" /><br style="font-weight: 400;" /></p><div type="image" title="A woman stands in front of ruins in Ukraine." height="4160" width="5546" msid="104106357" hostid="261"></div><p>Thirty minutes before the club opens for the evening, the dancers are gathered in the dressing room. Some are putting on their makeup; others shimmy into a wide array of erotic costumes: a maid's outfit, a police uniform, frilly French cancan skirts, a black sequined ball gown. The mood is buoyant. It all feels very far from the war-ravaged streets aboveground.</p><p>I sit next to Dana, a 23-year-old Kharkiv native who asked that Insider use only her first name to protect her privacy, as she slips into a pair of white-feathered angel wings. Before the war, she worked at a strip club in the city. Now, she feels relieved to be working in a club owned by women — one that isn't a place "where everyone tries to touch you." Flash Dancers is different, attempting to strike a balance between art and entertainment. </p><p>"I'm not ashamed of it," Dana says. "I can tell people I work in cabaret."</p><div type="image" title="Dancer gets ready backstage." height="4160" width="5546" msid="104106358" hostid="261"></div><p>When Dana first joined Flash Dancers, Valeriya said, she was shy, silent, and not open to speaking with the team. For many of the new, wartime employees, the challenge hasn't been just the difficulty of the routines. It's a lack of confidence and self-esteem. "They don't believe in themselves," Kseniya says. Part of that, she believes, stems from a lack of positive feedback growing up — "complications that were given to them by their parents as part of the USSR heritage." But part of it comes from the ongoing fear and uncertainty created by the war. Valeriya and her mother both make a point of complimenting the dancers frequently. Kseniya does their makeup, and Valeriya makes and tailors their outfits, so the exact fit "helps their confidence."</p><p>Still, setting aside the traumas of war while they're at work is a daily battle for everyone at Flash Dancers. "You have to smile when you don't want to," Valeriya says while inspecting a dancer's mascara. "You have to entertain when you don't want to." Gyrating to the Pussycat Dolls in pumps and a sheer pearl-sequined leotard while your country is under attack doesn't come naturally to anyone. Valeriya often reminds the dancers that their customers — many of them Ukrainian soldiers — are in dire need of a distraction. Making sure "they leave with positive emotions" is good for the cause — and for tips.</p><div type="image" title="Woman dancer getting ready backstage." height="3995" width="5992" msid="104106360" hostid="261"></div><p>"When the military comes in, they're so tense," Kseniya says. "It's really, really tough."</p><p>Occasionally they have to toss out an unruly man. But most are cordial. Many of the soldiers ask the dancers to sit with them, and the night becomes more group therapy than cabaret. They talk about their children and wives who have fled the city, the lives they've left behind, their own floundering businesses, what they've seen on the battlefield. Dancers sometimes get more tips from listening than from dancing.</p><p>One night back in March I met a 26-year-old soldier named Yurii Tryfan who sat alone wearing camo fatigues, nursing his Jägermeister. He told me he had just come from Bakhmut, the besieged city that has witnessed some of the most vicious fighting of the war. (Yevgeny Prigozhin, the now-deceased head of the Russian private army Wagner, claimed he had <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/head-of-russian-private-army-says-more-than-20000-fighters-died-in-bakhmut-battle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost 20,000 of his fighters</a> in Bakhmut alone.) Tryfan was reluctant to talk, but he had nothing but praise for the club and the solace it provided. "Amazing place," he says. "Wonderful staff, the best girls. And most importantly, the core lineup, the songs."</p><p>Over the past year, several soldiers who were regulars at Flash Dancers have been killed in the fighting. And the horrors of war have reached beyond the front lines. Last September, a dancer named Lyuda, one of the few who remained from before the war, went into labor. She was living in the commuter town of Kupyansk, which had fallen under Russian occupation soon after Russia invaded. She and her husband, Maksyum, a bartender she had met at Flash Dancers a few years earlier, left their home headed for the hospital. On their way, Russian soldiers shot at the car, killing them both. That same month, Pavlo, the club's business administrator, was shot dead by Russian soldiers while driving in Bakhmut.<br style="font-weight: 400;" /></p><div type="image" title="Woman dancing at strip club with men chanting her on." height="3925" width="5888" msid="104106364" hostid="261"></div><p class="drop-cap">At 6 p.m. sharp, the Flash Dancers sign outside the club lights up. Kate, a 19-year-old host who's majoring in English at a nearby college, hands out flyers to passersby. She's wearing a long red dress, red wings, and a red masquerade mask. No one bites. Inside, the dancers chat before the dance floor's mirror.</p><p>The International Monetary Fund says the Ukrainian economy has begun to show signs of "remarkable resilience" as critical infrastructure has been restored and inflation has begun to come down. And though Ukrainians have little spending power, nightlife is resurgent. In Kyiv, according to some reports, there are now more bars and restaurants open than there were before the war. Still, fewer than half of all small businesses in Ukraine are operating at full capacity, and inflation remains punishingly high. "Prices are constantly going up even now. It's scary," Kseniya says. She fears that if rates continue to climb, "people will stop going."</p><div type="image" title="Woman wearing angel wings dancing on strip club." height="3901" width="5852" msid="104106366" hostid="261"></div><p>The evening at Flash Dancers could serve as a microcosm of Ukraine's tentative but determined return to normality. By 7, two men trundle down the red-carpeted staircase. As more trickle in, some women take turns dancing while others sit with them, offering them company as they watch the performers. At 9 p.m., just after sunset and with barely an hour before close, a large group arrives. In the final hour, there's an avalanche of constant, acrobatic motion around the pole — syncrhonrized spins and shimmies and sashays as Aguilera croons. When one dancer finishes onstage, another immediately replaces her. "We've sped up the relaxation process" for the customer, Valeriya says, by "distracting him with a beautiful fuss around him."</p><p>"We reopened the club to create another world, where everything is magical," Valeriya says. "Diamonds and rhinestones do the trick."</p><div type="image" title="Woman wearing angle wings with purple light beaming through the back." height="3614" width="5421" msid="104106368" hostid="261"></div><p><em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/anna-conkling">Anna Conkling</a> is a journalist based in Berlin. Her writing has been featured in Rolling Stone, Elle, The Daily Beast, and elsewhere.</em></p><p><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><br style="font-weight: 400;" /><br /></p>

A night inside a strip club near Ukraine’s front lines

<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1">If you live in America, you've probably never heard of Missguided.</p><p class="p1">I had never heard of it either until I was laying on my couch watching an episode of "Bob's Burgers" last week and this commercial kept playing:</p><p></p><p class="p1">"What is this Nasty Gal knock off?" I wondered. Because I was on Hulu, the targeted ad kept looping over and over again every single commercial break until I finally broke down and had to look up what Missguided even was.</p><p class="p1">Turns out, it's an e-commerce store in the vein of ASOS and the brainchild of 32-year-old Nitin Passi. It's huge in the United Kingdom when it comes to brand recognition, mainly thanks to its <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2570403/EXCLUSIVE-The-wait-Nicole-Scherzinger-unveils-models-course-debut-range-Missguided.html">partnership with pop star Nicole Scherzinger</a>, formerly of the Pussycat Dolls, who has designed a few collections with the brand <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2503319/Nicole-Scherzingers-new-favourite-brand-Missguided-launches-slick-minimal-collection.html">since 2013</a>.</p><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1">And in the UK, it's performing incredibly well. Missguided sales are now over £86 million pounds, or $130 million, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/11523292/Nicole-Scherzinger-helps-fashion-retailer-Missguided-grow-sales-70pc.html">according to The Telegraph</a>. Missguided's founder <a href="http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-3025802/Founder-Missguided-taking-big-retail-names-Fashion-boss-growing-fast-little-help-Nicole-Scherzinger.html">Passi told This Is Money</a> that he has plans to increase sales to over £150 million pounds by next March.</p><p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A lot of the success has come from social media, <a href="http://internetretailing.net/2015/04/missguided-to-sell-in-us-stores-after-record-year/">Passi told Internet Retailing</a>. The brand's </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="https://instagram.com/missguided/">Instagram has 984,000 followers</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="https://twitter.com/missguided">its UK Twitter account has 331,000</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, and </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Missguidedcouk/timeline">its Facebook has 827,000 followers.</a></p><p class="p1">The e-commerce site is now expanding into the US and making a big push to appeal to American consumers - sort of like an online version of Topshop, which was huge in the U.K. before jumping stateside. In addition to their Hulu ad, Missguided has launched at Nordstrom stores and has also <a href="http://www.nowmagazine.co.uk/fashion-news/fashion-at-the-gym-missguided-launches-active-collection-and-teams-up-with-sbc-exercise-brand-loved-by-ellie-goulding-56401">expanded into athletic wear</a>.</p><p class="p4"><span class="s2"> </span></p><p class="p4"><span class="s2">The brand got its start back in 2008 after founder Passi had been living and working in the New York fashion industry with his father. </span></p><p class="p4"><span class="s2">"</span><span class="s3">I lived there for two years, and got kind of a grounding in the fashion business - everything from design, traveling the world with designers, to production, spending a lot of time out in China and selling as well," </span><a href="http://fashionista.com/2014/09/missguided-nitin-passi">he told Fashionista in a 2014 interview</a>.<a href="http://fashionista.com/2014/09/missguided-nitin-passi"><br /></a></p><p class="p4">After returning to London, Passi decided it was time to start his own fashion-based company. Basing his model loosely on other online retailers, he got a loan from his father for £50,000 or just under $80,000 to start his own e-commerce site and launched Missguided in 2009 in a 100-square-foot room in Manchester.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p><p class="p4"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p4">Six years later, the brand now has 210 employees and compares itself to Zara or ASOS when it comes to bringing consumers fast fashion. With daily new collections and as many as 200 new products every week, <a href="http://fashionista.com/2014/09/missguided-nitin-passi">Passi said</a> that the quick turnaround keeps 30% of consumers coming back daily to see the new designs. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br /></span></p><p class="p7"><span class="s1">"We are not fast fashion, we are rapid fashion," <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6e8fc7f8-10c8-11e4-b116-00144feabdc0.html">Passi told the Financial Times</a>. "We are bringing in collections every day. […] We are already asking how can we do it several times a day?"</span></p><p class="p9">And while the brand has expanded rapidly, it hasn't done so without a few growing pains. <a href="https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.missguided.co.uk">Customers began complaining</a> that their orders were wrong and that returns were too difficult in 2014.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br /></span></p><p class="p9"> </p><p class="p9">The brand has since stepped up its social media game, and attempts to reply to every single customer complaint online.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p><p class="p9">But growth concerns aside, it appears Missguided is looking forward. The latest project is for a <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/coolest-office-world-missguideds-new-5735890">new office in Manchester</a> with a helicopter pad on the rooftop and a dance floor with DJ booth. Passi also said he wants to take the brand global. </p><p class="p10"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"Right now, 80% of our business is in the UK, and we're seeing really strong growth figures internationally and demand for our brand internationally," <a href="http://fashionista.com/2014/09/missguided-nitin-passi">Passi told Fashionista</a>. "I want to make Missguided a global, household name - whether that's online or whether that's in stores, I'm not set on that. What I've got is a brand and I want to get that around the world, that's the number one goal now."</span><a href="http://fashionista.com/2014/09/missguided-nitin-passi"><span class="s4"><br /></span></a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chocolate-kinder-surprise-eggs-toys-2015-4">We got our hands on 'Kinder Surprise Eggs' - the global candy favorite that's still illegal in the US</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="JzcnlidDpB5a1Xs-qlzglXWaGqCUSWQA" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A British brand has $130 million in sales and is set to take over the US

<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">When Sophia Amoruso </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasty-gal-founder-in-the-new-york-times-2013-3">started an eBay store in 2006</a> and named it Nasty Gal<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, she had no idea it was going to grow into a successful fashion retailer.</span></p><p class="p1">But one <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasty-gal-become-a-multimillion-dollar-business-2014-5">successful memoir</a>, the viral hashtag #GIRLBOSS, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasty-gal-become-a-multimillion-dollar-business-2014-5">$100 million in sales later</a>, <a href="http://www.nastygal.com/">Nasty Gal</a> is a thriving clothing business that has millennial name recognition most brands would kill for.</p><p class="p1">Now, Nasty Gal is <a href="http://www.racked.com/2015/4/7/8341089/nasty-gal-funding">opening brick-and-mortar locations</a> to rival fast-fashion stores like Forever 21, H&amp;M, and Zara. But as the brand looks towards brick-and-mortar shops as its future, competition among other online retailers has never been greater.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1">Keep reading to see the seven stores that have a major online presence and are primed to catch up with - and possibly overtake - Nasty Gal.</p><h2 class="p1"><a href="https://www.missguided.co.uk/"><strong>Missguided</strong></a></h2><p class="p3"><span class="s1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p class="p3"><span class="s1"><strong>Location:</strong> Manchester, United Kingdom</span></p><p class="p3"><span class="s1"><strong>Founded:</strong> 2008 by Nitin Passi</span></p><p class="p3"><span class="s1"><strong>Stats:</strong> <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/11523292/Nicole-Scherzinger-helps-fashion-retailer-Missguided-grow-sales-70pc.html">Sales are over $130 million</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whats-missguided-hulu-commercial-2015-5">30% of visitors return daily</a></span></p><p class="p3"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">British e-commerce outfit Missguided covers all its bases when it comes to staying fresh in customers' minds. The shop updates its selections daily, maintains <a href="https://instagram.com/missguided/">active social media feeds</a>, and </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whats-missguided-hulu-commercial-2015-5">plays a commercial during Hulu programming</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> that tends to get stuck in potential customers' heads.</span></p><p class="p3"><span class="s1" style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="s2">Missguided also works the celebrity endorsement angle. <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2570403/EXCLUSIVE-The-wait-Nicole-Scherzinger-unveils-models-course-debut-range-Missguided.html">Pop star Nicole Scherzinger</a></span>, formerly of the Pussycat Dolls, has designed a few collections with the brand <span class="s2"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2503319/Nicole-Scherzingers-new-favourite-brand-Missguided-launches-slick-minimal-collection.html">since 2013</a>.</span></span></p><p class="p5"><span class="s1"><span>Founder Passi</span><a href="http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-3025802/Founder-Missguided-taking-big-retail-names-Fashion-boss-growing-fast-little-help-Nicole-Scherzinger.html"><span class="s2"> told This Is Money</span></a><span> that he has plans to increase sales to over £150 million pounds by next March. </span>They have now set their sights on America, and we will most likely be seeing much more of the British "rapid fashion" brand.</span></p><h2 class="p1"><a href="http://www.lulus.com/"><strong>Lulu*s</strong></a></h2><p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p class="p2"><strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Location: </span></strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Chico, California</span></p><p class="p2"><strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Founded: </span></strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">1996 by mother-daughter team Debra Cannon and Colleen Winter</span></p><p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>Stats:</strong> 500,000 worldwide orders with 1 million registered customers, <a href="https://www.newsreview.com/chico/lulu-of-a-success/content?oid=9083887">as of 2013</a></span></p><p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">When Cannon and Winter first started out, the so-called "Lulu*s Fashion Lounge" was a brick-and-mortar boutique selling vintage clothes in Chico, California. </span></p><p class="p1">Today, the brand has shortened its name to Lulu*s and sells its girly festival attire exclusively online. With a massive online presence, Lulu*s sells a range of products from dresses to accessories and beauty, all in limited quantities and of-the-moment trendy styles.  <a href="https://www.newsreview.com/chico/lulu-of-a-success/content?oid=9083887"><br /></a></p><p class="p1">In 2014, the Lulu*s team attracted external investor attention - one of the only stores to do so on this list - and <a href="http://higgrowth.com/news/release/760">partnered with H.I.G. Growth Partners</a>. </p><h2 class="p1"><a href="http://gypsywarrior.com/"><strong>Gypsy Warrior</strong></a></h2><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1"><strong>Location: </strong>Ridgewood, New Jersey</p><p class="p1"><strong>Founded:</strong> 2010 by Nicla DiCosmo and Michel Bezoza</p><p class="p1"><strong>Stats:</strong> <a href="https://instagram.com/gypsywarrior/">753,000 people follow Gypsy Warrior</a> on Instagram</p><p class="p1">Co-founders DiCosmo and Bezoza grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey. After starting Gypsy Warrior and gaining traction online, the pair opened their first <keyword id="6354851" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Retail">retail</keyword> store in 2011 in Ridgewood, New Jersey.</p><p class="p1">Online, Gypsy Warrior ships their new-age-meets-rock-and-roll fashions worldwide and has <a href="https://instagram.com/gypsywarrior/">a major social media presence</a>. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In addition to fashion, Gypsy Warrior has expanded into </span><a href="http://gypsywarrior.com/interior.html">interior design</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> as well with pillows, mugs, candles, dream catchers, and more.</span></p><h2 class="p1"><a href="http://www.tobi.com/"><strong>Tobi</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span></a></h2><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1"><strong>Location:</strong> San Francisco, California</p><p class="p1"><strong>Founded:</strong> 2007 by CEO Kenneth Chan</p><p class="p1"><strong>Stats:</strong> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/shoptobi">Tobi has 1.4 million followers on Facebook</a></p><p class="p1">Another online fast-fashion retailer based in California, this brand claims to have customers in over 100 countries and currently employs over 300 people. So far, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/kenneth-chan/28/45a/9a">Tobi has been internally funded</a>, Chan has said.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/kenneth-chan/28/45a/9a"><br /></a></p><p class="p1">Tobi is savvy at attracting new customers with a promotion for <a href="http://www.tobi.com/">50% off a first order</a> on clothes that typically range from $50 to $80. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The team also puts a major emphasis on customer service and encourages its customers who might be unsure of sizing to contact the team with their measurements and the product they're interested in.</span></p><h2 class="p1"><a href="http://us.dorothyperkins.com/"><strong>Dorothy Perkins</strong></a></h2><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1"><strong>Location:</strong> London, United Kingdom</p><p class="p1"><strong>Founded:</strong> 1909 as Ladies Hosiery and Underwear Limited</p><p class="p1"><strong>Stats:</strong> <a href="https://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/about-us/our-brands/dorothy-perkins">1.2 million customers visit the website every week to shop their 6,000 products</a></p><p class="p1">The most storied brand on this list, Dorothy Perkins - or "DP" as its customers call it - is also one of the only brands with a chain of retail stores. It was founded all the way back in 1909 <a href="http://us.dorothyperkins.com/en/dpus/category/help-contact-788587/home?viewAllFlag=false&amp;TS=1316535735131#fragment-9">when blouses were sold for five shillings apiece</a>.</p><p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Now, the British brand has 600 brick-and-mortar stores in the UK and sells a <a href="http://us.dorothyperkins.com/en/dpus/category/help-contact-788587/home?viewAllFlag=false&amp;TS=1316535735131#fragment-9">range of sizes from US sizes 2 to 18</a> in tall, petite, and maternity. </span></p><p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Though they're well known in the UK, Dorothy Perkins has fast-fashion prices and expanded their online presence to include the US where other affordable retailers like Nasty Gal and Forever21 are thriving. Even though the store is over 100 years old, thanks to a huge online presence they could become massive here in the States.</span></p><h2 class="p1"><a href="http://www.showpo.com/"><strong>Showpo</strong></a></h2><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1"><strong>Location:</strong> Sydney, Australia</p><p class="p1"><strong>Founded:</strong> 2010 by Jane Lu <a href="http://www.iloveshowpo.com/jane-lu-women-fashion-online.html/">out of a garage</a></p><p class="p1"><strong>Stats:</strong> <a href="https://instagram.com/iloveshowpo/">622,000 followers</a> on Instagram</p><p class="p1">Showpo was first known as "Show Pony" when Jane Lu founded the company. At the time, she was tired of corporate life after having worked for accounting firms. She decided to start selling playful and colorful clothing.<a href="http://www.iloveshowpo.com/jane-lu-women-fashion-online.html/"><br /></a></p><p class="p1">The brand opened a store two months after launching, and then another soon after at Sydney CBD Westfield mall in Australia. With online skyrocketing, however, the team shut down the brick-and-mortar stores to focus the attention of their <a href="http://www.iloveshowpo.com/our-story/">11 staff members</a> on iloveshowpo.com.</p><p class="p1">In addition to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, Showpo are gaining a following on <a href="http://www.iloveshowpo.com/our-story/">YouTube</a> with popular how-to videos.</p><h2 class="p1"><a href="http://www.pixiemarket.com/"><strong>Pixie Market</strong></a></h2><p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1"><strong>Location:</strong> New York, New York</p><p class="p1"><strong>Founded:</strong> 2006 by <span>Gaelle Drevet and Magda Pietrobelli</span></p><p class="p1"><strong>Stats:</strong> <a href="https://instagram.com/pixiemarket/">58,500 followers</a> on Instagram<a href="https://instagram.com/pixiemarket/"></a></p><p class="p1">What started as a <a href="http://nymag.com/listings/stores/pixie-market/">vintage store on the Lower East Side</a> has evolved into a fast fashion online boutique. <a href="http://ny.racked.com/2013/2/19/7686787/pixie-markets-owners-on-keeping-les-fashion-affordable#4521430%20">Drevet and Pietrobelli quit their jobs after a trip to India in 2006</a> where they realized they wanted to start selling accessible fashion together.</p><p class="p1">They try to keep the prices for their trendy, bohemian clothing under $100 and are almost exclusively online now after transforming their Pixie Market Lower East Side location in Manhattan into Frankie, the <a href="http://ny.racked.com/2014/11/14/7568619/frankie-pixie-market#4384362">"older sister" store of Pixie Market</a>.</p><p class="p1">Their prices range from $50 to upwards of $400, though most pieces tend to stay on the more affordable side.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/under-armour-growing-popularity-athletic-brand-nike-2015-5">It's official: Under Armour is on fire</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="htdGo1dToLTD6Zl4uo0JA2ymOhCQlL-a" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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